The western red-billed hornbill (''Tockus kempi'') is a species of

hornbill Hornbills are birds found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia of the family Bucerotidae. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a horny casque on the upper ...

in the family

Bucerotidae Hornbills are birds found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia of the family Bucerotidae. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a horny casque on the upper ...

. It is found from

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

and

Gambia The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...

to southern

Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...

and western

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

. There are five species of

red-billed hornbill The red-billed hornbills are a group of hornbills found in the savannas and woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa. They are now usually Lumpers_and_splitters#Biology, split into five species, the northern red-billed hornbill (''Tockus erythrorhynchus ...

s generally recognized now, but all five were once considered

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

. Some authorities still categorize the group as ''Tockus erythrorhynchus'' with the remaining four as its

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

Description

Western red-billed hornbills are small hornbills in the genus

Tockus ''Tockus'' is a genus of birds in the hornbill family, Bucerotidae, which are native to Africa. Description Hornbills in the genus ''Tockus'' are medium-sized African birds with triangular shaped curved bills. They can be found in tropical an ...

. They have curved red beaks which are more orange on the lower beak and more bright red on the upper beak, with both ending with a dark orange colour. Their heads are greyish white and have black feathers along the back of their heads and neck. They have white plumage on their faces and large dark grey eye rings. Their

sclera The sclera, also known as the white of the eye or, in older literature, as the tunica albuginea oculi, is the opaque, fibrous, protective outer layer of the eye containing mainly collagen and some crucial elastic fiber. In the development of t ...

is dark brown and their pupils are black. Their wings are like all red-billed hornbills, with large and small circles of white feathers surrounded by black feathers on the exterior and white on the upper half of the interior and black on the lower half of the interior. They have long tail feathers that are black on the exterior and a greyish white on the interior.

Gallery

Western red-billed hornbill (Tockus kempi) male 2.jpg, male, The Gambia Tockus_kempi_at_nest,_Gambia.jpg, Male at a nest entrance in The Gambia

References

*Kemp, A.C. and W. Delport. 2002. Comments on the status of subspecies in the red-billed hornbill (Tockus erythrorhynchus) complex (Aves: Bucerotidae), with the description of a new taxon endemic to Tanzania. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 39: 1–8. *Delport, W., A.C. Kemp, and J.W.H. Ferguson. 2004. Structure of an African Red-billed Hornbill (Tockus erythrorhynchus rufirostris and T. e. damarensis) hybrid zone as revealed by morphology, behavior, and breeding biology. Auk 121: 565–586. western red-billed hornbill Birds of West Africa western red-billed hornbill {{Bucerotiformes-stub